Stay at the Top

We’ve talked about how to handle the normal hurdles that might prevent us from maintaining a high performance lifestyle, but what about when something truly massive and unexpected comes up to throw us off track?This is something Ali Flynn has excessive experience with, having overcome a traumatic childhood, strokes, chronic illnesses and more to then launch and run 3 businesses while also becoming a triathlete.In this episode Ali share:Her personal background and how it started her journey to high performanceThe moment she had a stroke as a mother of 3 kidsThe massive high performance goals she set and achieved post strokeThe boundaries she put in place to help her avoid burning out post strokeHer advice for how to face adversity in a positive way and not become bitterHow to set your valuesHow she allowed different habits and activities in her life at different times depending on whether they served her or notHer non negotiables that allow her to prioritise herself and her healthHow she handles having to drop things when disasters and crises hitHer advice on how to transition to a new goal gradually and not suddenlyThe 3 things that help her stay at the top Key Quotes“When adversity hits you can get bitter or you can get better.”“If we focus on doing the small things often, we move the dial.”“How do we as an individual get so honed in on what our plan is and remove the outside distractions?”More about AliTo book an exclusive spot in Ali’s High Performance Leadership summit head here: https://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au/registration1660014924140 You can listen to her podcast Challenges That Change Us here: https://podfollow.com/challenges-that-change-usYou can check out her facebook community herehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeusFollow on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeusOr check out her website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.comTake the high-performance profile quiz herehttps://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz  More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the start of the new year many of you may have heard of the Netflix documentary “You Are What You Eat” and be considering changing your own lifestyle based on the results the program showed.Before you run out to the supermarket and buy every vegetable in sight and throw out every bit of meat left in your fridge and freezer, there is actually a fair bit to unpack and consider about this show. Just like with everything, we need to approach this with nuance and consideration, so this episode will be giving you everything you need to know when it comes to following the advice given in the show.In this episode I share: -      My breakdown of the study the show is based on and whether or not it is credible-      The key results and takeaways from the show and what it says about plant based diets-      What are telomeres and how the interventions in the show impacted these-      The big considerations to be aware of when taking the documentary’s results-      What you should do and not do after watching the documentary-      The different varieties of plant based food -      What is a microbiome and how does eating more plants help?-      Examples of plant based foods that are high in protein-      The mistake I saw people do after watching similar documentaries in the past Key Quotes“What is helpful is to eat more plant based food and increase the diversity of plants.”“Whilst the people on the plant based diet lost more weight, those on plant based diets also lost considerable amounts of muscle mass”“It's easier to eat more protein in animal based foods.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz  More about the podcast and meIf you’re interested in having me as a speaker you can find out more here: https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/speaker-kit-downloadFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy new year everyone!I’m sure you all have big goals and big dreams for the new year and in this episode I want to help you achieve them.No matter the goal or objective it is always wise to work smarter and efficiently rather than flat lining and trying to power through.In this episode I have 5 key tips you should definitely consider implementing this year to make your life easier and the journey to achieving your goals simpler.In this episode I share: -      3 simple sleep recovery tools to make sleep and energy recovery easier in 2024-      Some simple strategies to help you be proactive about your wellbeing rather than reactive-      My tip for how to combat the 3pm energy slump proactively-      One key strategy for how to start your day and ensure you have energy until the end-      Some specific metrics to consider with taking protein in the morning-      How to implement 90 minute cycles into your day and how they can help-      The importance of outsourcing and automating and how you can implement both in your day to day living-      An important planning factor to keep in mind to ensure workouts that you start during the break, continue during the year Key Quotes“The greater the deep work and the focus, the greater the recovery tactics and strategies that you want to put in place.”“Cultivating a consistent sleep routine is one of the best practices you can implement if you want to start to maximise your sleep.”“Instead of starting to take action when we are starting to feel tired. How about we put daily routines and rituals into our lives that support our body, mind and spirit.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz  More about the podcast and meIf you’re interested in having me as a speaker you can find out more here: https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/speaker-kit-downloadFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our second deep dive interview of Stay at the Top we are joined by someone who has lived in a high performance lifestyle of General Manager or above for over 2 decades.If that’s not personifying ‘Stay at the Top’ I don’t know what is.Wayne Reuben has extensive senior leadership career in Pharma, Med-device (Optometry and Audiology) and FMCG and was the previous APAC Region President On top of that he is the previous founder/program delivery lead for HiWay Advanced Training and a certified Coach, AMC Mentor, DiSC Accredited, Podcast Host of “Hard Yards in Leadership” and Author. In this episode Wayne share:His early stages in his career and how working in the factory helped him in the later stage office jobs that he workedHis two decades working in the GM level and aboveHow he learnt how to work at such a high sustained level without breakdownWhat made him incorporate fitness into his strategy for maintaining his high performance lifestyleHow the physical fitness routine helped his mental fitnessWhy he always made time for a run without failHow his physical exercise also helped ensure he had good nutritionHis advice for others on how to put progress over perfectionThe tips and strategies he attributes to helping him stay at the top Key Quotes“It’s a gift that we don’t rise too fast because it does harden us and toughens us up and provides chunks of learning.”“You do actually have the power to say no to people when they say this is the program and to force your needs into the space.”“I came to realise that if I was going go for a run for an hour…I would always start with what are some of the things that are waying on my mind? And I’d bring them with me and then let them go.”More about WayneYou can hear more of the wisdom and stories Wayne gathers on his podcast Hard Yards In Leadership: https://podfollow.com/hard-yards-in-leadershipYou can connect with him on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/Or find out more about his coaching through the Curious Leaders Circle: https://www.curiousleaderscircle.com/Take the high-performance profile quiz herehttps://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz  More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week I shared 5 lessons I have learnt from my 10 years working on professional sport.Having worked 30 seasons in various professional team sports, with world record holders, Olympic athletes and many corporate organisations, schools and active adolescent athletes there are plenty of lessons I have picked up that I think can apply to High Performers as well.This episode is part 2 and I’ll be sharing the next 5 lessons from elite athlete performance I think we can all benefit from following.In this episode I share:-      The importance of strategic use of supplements-      The way I recommend you approach using supplements-      How I see supplement strategies used in high performance roles-      Supplements I use with high performers in sport and business-      The important things to know about fish oil supplements -      What third party batch tested supplements are and why you should use them-      How elite athletes understand the benefits of engaging a team of experts-      Why elite athletes use a personal dietitian as well as their team dietitian-      Why you should embrace a diverse range of recovery methods-      The difference between macro and micro recovery-      Examples of micro forms of recovery-      The ways elite athletes build their mental strength-      Why you should always be searching for a competitive advantage Key Quotes“Utilising supplements strategically for a number of different reasons is advantageous.”“If you’re really wanting to seek expert guidance you really want to have your own individual expert in that area.”“You really need to consider who you are gaining your advice from.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz  More about the podcast and meIf you’re interested in having me as a speaker you can find out more here: https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/speaker-kit-downloadFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many of you may not be aware of where I spent the majority of my professional career but I actually spent a decade working with 7 different professional sports teams.During that time I was fortunate to be a part of teams that won premierships, championships and made a number of grand finals.From this I have been able to take away so many lessons and learnings from these incredible athletes.I believe that many of this lessons can be applied to other high performance industries and in this episode I want to share a glimpse of some of the key lessons our athletes know that you should know too.In this episode I share:-      My experience working with elite athletes-      What elite athletes are taught about nutrition that many of us don’t know-      What pre-hab is and how it can help you as much as it helps athletes-      The importance of daily routines and rituals-      How elite athletes periodise their training and how doing the same can help you-      How rest is important for elite athletes and is for you too-      The ways athletes utilise rest-      How we can bring that rest strategy to high performance and leadership-      The other parts of rest besides just sleeping-      How seeking therapy can help with rest-      The importance of building mental resilience-      The sort of hurdles athletes and high performers may encounter that require resilience Key Quotes“Elite athletes understand that nutrition is a key component to optimising their performance and enhancing their longevity.”“Most people don’t know how good they can actually feel and this is a by-product of you having never experienced it.”“We don’t want to reach burn out or break down before we change and unfortunately that is often the case.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz   More about the podcast and meIf you’re interested in having me as a speaker you can find out more here: https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/speaker-kit-downloadFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I’m sharing with you the first interview episode of Stay at The Top and I couldn’t have chosen anyone else other than Shannah Kennedy.As well as being my own personal coach Shannah Kennedy is one of Australia’s foremost strategic life coaches. Her proven expertise enables clients to gain control of their lives in order to achieve their visions and goals.With an intuitively tactical yet caring approach, Shannah applies her knowledge, energy, drive and spirit to motivate and inspire others to shift their life, career and business dreams to reality.She is an author of a stack of books, but has just released Elevate with Colleen Callandar and is joining us today to give an insight into how you can Elevate your life.In this episode Shannah share:Her journey into a high performance career with sports clientsHow her high career job cost her her healthThe realisation that made her get into studying coachingWhat she does to be able to manage everything with chronic fatigueThe strategies and tools and practices she uses to maintain her health through every dayThe story behind her new book and how it can help youThe things she does for fun and why fun ins important for health Key Quotes“Dancing with chronic fatigue for the last 20 years is about becoming friends with yourself.”“We're all athletes, we’re athletes of life, we’re athletes of business and we need to learn from high performing humans, some of the tools and tricks to bring in.”“I think a lot of us have forgotten the importance of our PM routine. Our cool down routine. How we finish work, how we go to bed.”More about ShannahFind out about Shannah’s coaching services via her website: https://shannahkennedy.com/You can check out her new book elevate here: https://shannahkennedy.com/books/Or follow her on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShannahKennedyCoaching/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannahkennedy/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannah-kennedy-8a898b1/Take the high-performance profile quiz herehttps://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sleep and nutrition are two critically important factors we need to maintain when it comes to living a high performance lifestyle.But what many of us don’t realise that these two factors do not operate in isolation. In fact the management and maintenance of sleep can often have a positive, or negative effect on our nutrition and the same is true for nutrition’s effect on sleep.So for this episode we are going to be taking a close look at the relationship between nutrition and sleep and discovering how we can use one to improve the other and the traps that we can fall into.In this episode I share:-      The misconception we often make about the connection between sleep and nutrition-      Just how crucial nutrition is for a good night’s sleep-      Why people overeat in the evening and why it is bad-      Why changing your food choices patterns is not about willpower or dedication-      Why a key strategy to help you leverage nutrition is to sleep better-      What markers to look for to determine if nutrition is affecting your sleep-      The role caffeine and alcohol have in our sleep-      The three main ways poor sleep can impact our nutrition-      How poor sleep physiologically makes us crave food and caffeine Key Quotes“When we're sleeping poorly we're more likely to be craving sweet foods.”“Poor sleep can lead to overeating, or choosing unhealthy food options and poor food choices can affect our sleep.”“:The food choices we make every single day are within our control.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz   More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are in an energy crisis. So many of us report feeling fatigued or exhausted well before we actually should be and a lot of that comes down to poor utilisation of sleep.If you use the right strategies, your sleep should be giving you the right recovery and energy you need to perform throughout the day. But without it you could very well end up in a self perpetuating cycle that reinforces bad sleep.In this episode I’m providing the strategies and tools you need to take the first step in reclaiming a strong sleep cycle. In this episode I share:The 3 key archetypes and what it means for your right next stepWhy ‘just sleep more’ is not the solution to better sleep recoveryThe 4 main sleep stagesThe importance of wearable technology for tracking sleepMy recommendations for best wearable tech to useThe barriers you might encounter to optimise the quality of our sleepThe strategies for improving sleep and overcoming the barrier that might prevent itThe 4 different ‘chronotypes and what your chronotype means about your sleep patternsThe importance of getting outside right after waking upWhat you should be considering about how you eat in the later half of the dayHow many hours before sleep we should be having dinnerWhy a night routine is more important than a morning routineMy recommendations for a night time routineMy recommendations for supplements to help the nutrition support for your sleep Key Quotes“The reality is feeling better is about pulling the right levers.”“Often a lot of high performers report they think they sleep well, but at the end of our coaching program, they report that they are currently sleeping better than they were.”“We’ve all heard that we need to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night and for a lot of us that may not be possible.”“What happens across the night is we toggle across these different stages, we don’t go from one to the next.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz The supplements I suggested in this episode can be found here:Pillar Performancehttps://pillarperformance.shop/ code Jesselite20 (20% off)Momentoushttps://www.livemomentous.com/ code Jess15 (15% off) More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In order to properly fuel ourselves we need to understand our body. Knowing what parts of our body need what kinds of food is vital to be able to help feed ourselves correctly.What food is going to our brain? What food does our brain actually need? How much does it need? How will that affect our guts’ relationship with our brain? These are just some of the questions we should be asking, and answering, in order to fuel ourselves properly. In this episode I share:-      My advice for how to think about your body and brain-      Why it’s important to consider what your brain needs when it comes to considering what you're going to eat-      What is the blood brain barrier and what does it do?-      The significant impact even mild dehydration can have on our cognitive abilities-      The side effects of fluctuations in blood sugar levels-      The amount of fats that make up the brain and why they are important-      Some of the physiological responses that can happen if we are under eating-      The ways the brain and gut are connected-      What can happen to our adrenals when we’re not fuelling ourselves adequately-      The side effects that can occur to our thyroid if we are underfuelling-      The power of being strategic and intentional-      The mistake I see people make with their meals for the day-      How you actually create a meal that your body and brain need and the elements to break it down into-      Where to get all the different fats our brain needs Key Quotes“I know breakfast can be hard if you aren’t good at having breakfast. But it’s like any area, you don’t become good if you don’t practice.”“If you are inconsistent every single day, your body and your brain has no idea what consistency looks like.”“Fuelling is about giving your body what it needs rather than missing the mark and playing catch ups.”Take the high-performance profile quiz here https://jessica-spendlove.mykajabi.com/Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Quiz   More about the podcast and meFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=enYou can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/See my range of current services here https://www.jessicaspendlove.com/servicesIf you want to contact me directly, send me an email here: admin@jessicaspendlove.com   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.